Before products, such as for example deep-drawn packed foodstuffs, are shipped off from a production site, they are typically packaged into easily manageable containers such as crates, cases or trays. To prevent the packaging stage from being a bottleneck in the production process, and to minimize the costs of both packaging and shipping, machines capable of reliably and efficiently packaging products are essential.
Contemporary packaging machines often use a robotic gripper that engages one or more products at a pick up location, moves the product(s) from said pick up location to an awaiting container and then places the product(s) inside the container. A drawback of this type of packaging machine is that the robotic gripper may easily drop a product during its actions. This is especially so when the product does not retain its shape while being handled, and/or when the movement of the robotic gripper between the pick up location and the container—due to the required speed of the packaging process—involves relatively large accelerations and decelerations. Furthermore, when it comes to accurately positioning a product within a container, in particular in the corners thereof, a robotic gripper is often not up to the task. This a consequence of the fact that a robotic gripper typically at least partially surrounds/encloses a product, such that that it cannot place a product tightly into the corner of a container due to impeding contact with the container walls.
The present disclosure is directed, at least in part, to improving or overcoming some aspects of known packaging machines.